"It's well documented in official records that the City's original name was 'Snottingham', or 'Home of the Snots', but when the Normans came, they couldn't pronounce the letter 'S', so decreed the town be called 'Nottingham' or the 'Home of the Notts'. It is therefore easy to understand why this change was resisted so fiercely by the people of Scunthorpe."
The late, great, Humphrey Lyttelton in one of his opening monologues for BBC Radio's I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, 1999.

The focus will be on City losing a two goal lead and a couple of points at home, however I was more interested in the first half tactical decision that had Martin Petrov start on the right wing. Given that Petrov is quite possibly the most one footed person on the planet and it is his left foot I just don't understand this. City had a selection dilemma with the return of Bellamy but in this case I would have preferred Petrov to stay on his natural left side - which is what happened at the start of the second half.

Sad to see what Liverpool have become under Rafa Benitez. Always been my brother's team and during the 70's were a sight to behold as I was forced to watch every time they were on! Liverpool played the game right, in many ways the Arsenal of their day with the exception that they won a lot more often than Wenger's boys.

Nine games into a season, eight for City, but nine for most is a good point to take stock and see what trends are possible to detect. As such I was taking a look at the league table. There are a couple of truisms that I've found to be useful especially relatively early in the season.

I look at the table and I shouldn't complain. I look at the result against a team that beat Chelsea last time out and I shouldn't complain. I look at a gritty rear guard action by 10 men and I shouldn't complain and I look at Petrov getting a run in the side and I shouldn't complain.

Wallace Poulter is an award winning video game producer, designer, industry consultant and writer. He has been a football fanatic since the day he moved in next door to Brian Clough. "Cloughie" being the acknowledged genius that he was promptly moved out and went to manage Derby. A serviceable senior school left-back in his youth, Poulter played one season of Sunday league football as a striker proving conclusively that he was a serviceable senior school left-back! Today Poulter remains involved with football as a licensed referee and most recently as a consultant on a Football MMO.